FenCon report

[celticdragonfly]

Okay, I got a nap yesterday, and went to bed over an hour early last night, and I think I'm starting to be reasonably coherent again. And I'm taking the pain meds regularly enough that they're starting to do some good.

So, FENCON! We got there Thursday night - I had the van all packed up when Karl got home, and off we went. I figured out a route that avoided most of the major freeways, and any that would be possible Rita evacuation routes. Didn't work quite as planned, but I think it was better than the standard route would have been. I've never gotten to a con on Thursday night before. Generally it's been Friday night, running later and later and more and more stressed and frazzled. I LIKE showing up on Thursday night, I hope I can do that again. It made the whole start to the con so much more relaxed and easy.

We didn't get the connecting rooms we'd hoped for with the kids, but we did get adjoining rooms - first floor, right by the elevators, closest to the con rooms. At the time I thought that was going to be a noisy nuisance, but actually it was amazingly convenient and useful! Rhiannon ended up sleeping with the kids on Friday so Karl and I could be in the same room, and then we had the babysitter from Friday night on, so it worked out, that was very kind of her. Maggie was very excited to see people - ended up going off to the restaurant with the Tyra family to chat with them while joyeuse13 helped us unload the car. (And we got it all in with one load on the luggage cart and in arms, which by us is travelling light!) Eventually got to bed sometime after 1, got up at 6 am, eventually took the kids off to breakfast at IHOP.

Hm, the overall theme of the weekend for me was repeatedly ending up NOT going to something I'd planned to go, in favor of going to something that sounded at least vaguely interesting so that I could stay in the company of friends. Good choice, I had fun that way, although lots of the weekend ends up as a pleasant wandering blur. Friday afternoon Karl went off with the kids to get the babysitter, so I was really unencumbered for a while. I got to help at registration for a little bit. I only went to one panel on Friday, and did things like wander the dealer's room, check out the new art show, go swimming a bit, shower, and eventually make it to the concerts. (Bill Sutton's song "Women with Drums" is great)

I was planning to spend most of the evening in the open filk, but ended up going off with friends for a couple of hours, had a marvelous time with them, and didn't make it in there until after 1 am. I'm glad I went, though. It was a bit frustrating when I got there. They were doing it Chaos style, which was translating to "only the people with guitars get to sing." But people were starting to drift away, so after several of them had, I got the chance to follow a song of faxpaladin's with one I know. That was nice. Then as the last people were packing up to leave, I started in with a filk lullabye - Heather Alexander's "Close Your Eyes", which I've used as a lullabye for my kids for years. It's ideally sung as a round, and I was very pleased to hear Joe follow in behind me. That was nice. Went to bed 3ish, got up at 7.

Saturday morning breakfast it was lovely to realize it's only Saturday morning, there's lots of the con to go! Definite advantage to getting there on Thursday. We tried taking the kids to see The Incredibles in the video room, to give the babysitters a bit of a break. Jamie got too fussy, and Karl took him out to let him run around on his new harness. Maggie was okay for a bit, but it got a bit too intense for her. (She had seen it in the theater, but that's been a while, and she's become very sensitive to emotional stuff and scary music and such.) "All done now", she informed me. I talked her into trying a little more, and she did, and then solemnly looked at me and again whispered "All done now." So we left.

I wanted to go to a filk panel[1], but ended up going to the showing of Serenity (the pilot) in the video room as an evangelical attempt to get joyeuse13 hooked on the show. She could only stay for a bit over half of it, but I think that was enough. (insert appropriately evil laugh here!) selenite was also in there, and was announcing his Firefly RPG game for that afternoon, since the gaming schedule didn't make it into the program.

A large part of Saturday was spent either in filk concerts or wandering dealer's room and art show. selenite ran his Firefly RPG, which I will let him write about, as I only wandered by a couple of times to see him looking cheerfully busy. I got the chance to pick msminlr's brain on some intro quilting stuff, that was fun. Then the S.M. Stirling Keynote Address. Which was marvelous. He started out talking about how he usually doesn't give a speech at things like this, and had asked the ConCom what format he could use. Anything he liked, they said. So he then said it would be given in the form of Socratic dialogue between the Good Steve and the Evil Steve, and poppped up his hands with a white sockpuppet on one and a black sock puppet on the other. GoodSteve: "I'd like to thank my fans for all they've done and how they've enabled me to make a living doing what I love best!" (OWTTE) EvilSteve: "Where were THEY when I was suffering?" Oh, it was hilarious. He only did that for a moment or two, I hope people got pictures.

Then the art and charity auction. Ed Dravecky outbid me on the cookie jar I so coveted, but I was determined to get the Consonance filk DVD with 6 hours worth of programming, west coast filkers that either I don't get to hear anymore or some that I never had. The auction went on and on and on, they were being so slow, and there was so much stuff. I finished up Ed's Jayne hat, and since he'd sat down next to me, plopped it on his head. He owes me yarn costs plus Good Chocolate. I was getting to be in serious levels of pain from all the sitting, and eventually sent up messages through other FenCon folk to please please please do that item soon. I got it. kd5mdk and jazz007 chipped in, since they want to see it to.

I changed into the fancier outfit for the evening, and selenite changed into his - oooh, he looks so GOOD in that outfit, and the beard just made it even better. Swoon! Mine really needed a necklace of some kind, and I was saying to jazz007 and kd5mdk that it was a pity joyeuse13 was already in the cabaret green room or I'd have asked for a loan. jazz007 unfastened a hematite necklace she'd bought in the dealer's room and loaned it to me for the night. It was lovely, cylindrical beads with alternating round and oval ones in the middle. The next day I went back and found that dealer, and bought one for myself that was similar, but with alternating small and large round beads in the middle. I like it. Also got myself some Liaden chapbooks, some filk CDs and a filk songbook from the Creaseys, and pretty pendant from a kind jewelry merchant who gave Maggie a beaded bracelet after she'd been entranced by her table.

The cabaret was good, although it went on a bit long, at least for me since it hurts to sit even in the folding chair. They had a radio play, and a bellydance group, same one from last year. Others love them, and I like bellydance, I keep thinking I should be entranced, but somehow it just doesn't work for me. It was pretty funny when they started pulling guys up front, starting with the toastmaster, David Gerrold (after they danced with Larry Niven last year, I suppose it is becoming a Tradition), and then as they came down the aisle jazz007 pointed them at kd5mdk and they took him up there. Then the masquerade - joyeuse13's Unseelie Sidhe won most beautiful, and that was no surprise, wow. Aaron was adorable in his Peter Pan outfit, but didn't enter the contest. Tamisan (who was my roomie at Conestoga, where she had a cool Hermione outfit) won best of show as the Modern Pirate - flashy pirate outfit and speech, with disks and CDs and DVDs in her coat.

Saturday night open filk - wheee, that was a lot of people. Sadly, some of the people I was specifically hoping to hear a couple of the songs I planned didn't make it. But it was good anyway. selenite and I sat down, and faxpaladin came in and joined us after a while, and an interesting couple with lots of filk books and a twisted sense of humor ended up on the floor in front of us[2], and then kd5mdk and jazz007 filled out the grouping.

John Creasy started asking what kind of circle we should do, and I chimed in with my vote for bardic circle, with some chaos for followers and such. We were encouraging people to remember that there IS a pick option as well as pass and play, and that got used a lot more than I've often seen. There was a lot of pausing as we came to people, and someone went into a gentle short lecture on be aware when your turn is coming and what you want to do or ask for. That helped.

I have found I get quite bold at filk circles, have been giving up the practice that most non-pros[3] seem to have of apologizing preemptively, and just sing to enjoy myself singing. I ws thinking it had to be reasonably acceptable, given that it started going around, several people asked one guitarist to sing, and he was one who'd heard me sing the night before, and when it got to be his turn he asked me to sing something. After the con I end up filled with doubt and figuring nah, it's just that at filksings we accept everybody singing, no matter how bad they are.

After a bit the circle got around to our little corner. (extremely loose use of the word "corner", here) selenite requested Butterbug Blues, which I'd told him I wanted to sing, so faxpaladin and I sang that. I *adore* singing that with him, it's such a fun bouncy song and I love getting into it. I bought an Echo's Children CD later that weekend, and listened to it Sunday night - and you know, this is terribly vain of me, but I like what faxpaladin and I do with it (and mine is mostly following his lead, he's the one getting creative) more than I like the 'official' recording, and selenite said he did, too. Then the lady on the floor had a twisted weird song to the tune of Winter Wonderland, so we all jumped in on that one. Her partner picked Dawson's Christian. I'd been thinking of singing Never Set the Cat on Fire, but then had decided I'd pick something else - and kd5mdk had heard me say that, and then requested the song himself, that was fun. jazz007 wanted another of the twisted filks that the lady on the floor had showed us - ah, I think we were singing that one in about 4 different keys/variations on the tune, but we had fun anyway. Then I sang my filk Admiral Miles, seemed to go over okay, and faxpaladin sang a Miles Vorkosigan/Honor Harrington crossover song to the Dawson's Christian tune. Wheeee, that was a fun period of time.

It was a big circle, and there were lots of people, but it did slowly thin out over the evening. I think to me the highlight of the rest of the evening is right after the guy on the other side of the circle did a song about leather goddesses and whips - all as a build-up to end with "But don't tell Leslie Fish!", who was of course in the circle - I called follower and sang Tom Lehrer's The Masochism Tango. kd5mdk and jazz007 popped up next to me to sing along at first, and then, as the floor had cleared out, they both got a gleam in their eyes and got up to tango around the room as I sang.

selenite was urging me to find more filk I could sing in duets and such and try to someday do one-shots and mini bits on stage. I'm doubting my voice is good enough for it. I wish I could get some vocal training, although I don't know if it's good enough to justify that. I know selenite likes my singing, but love the man though I do, I must admit he's not great on musical stuff, so that doesn't necessarily tell me that much.

kd5mdk wants Peter Wimsey filk, we have told him to go be a good boy and write it for us. I am determined to soon finally finish up those two almost-done filk songs I'm working on, and to establish a decent filkbook - I need a nice binder filled with sheet protectors just begging for songs, that's what I need. And I need to try to practice more music.

Sunday - Sunday pretty much boiled down to hanging out with people, actually spending the money in the dealer's room, and going to filk concerts. I know I was enjoying myself, but I was getting sleep deprived enough that some of the details are fuzzy. I remember getting to braid joyeuse13's hair, that's fun. kd5mdk starting to sing under his breath the Coffeepot Song I introduced him to as a follower to Joe Giacoio's Vivarin-induced song. That sort of thing. Eventually we went home. kd5mdk and jazz007 came along, we got chinese takeout and subs and had dinner with the kids and the babysitter. There were filk CDs played, and kd5mdk helped with rearranging the computers so I can work standing up. Eventually everybody went home and eventually we collapsed into sleep.

That was a great weekend, and I know there were lots of great bits I haven't written about yet. It was fun and inspiring and leaves me wanting more cons and more filks. Next year will be great! And it's up on the webpage for Fencon III, so that makes it okay for me to finally tell everybody - next year our Filk Guest of Honor is Heather Alexander!


[1] FenCon is the best con for filking outside of a filk-specific con that I have ever seen. Not only is there open filk, it's in the middle of the con, not off in some obscure corner, there's concerts, RIGHT in the middle of things, and there's actual filk PANELS. It's COOL.

[2] I have her card in my badge holder, as she's offered to send me filk lyrics I don't have that I want. I gave her one of my new cards, too, I was very glad to have those at the con. She has LOTS of filk, a twisted wicked mind, and seems just like our kind of person. Must email her soon, when I dig the badge out. Now if I could just remember her name. The email address had cat in it. (Right, that really narrows it down, I know)

[3] In using the term "pros" here I am including people who may not have any CDs or make any money at it, but play an instrument well, write their own songs and their own music, and such.